Crime in the Mountains is continuing to fall, with the latest figures showing many categories of offences are falling or, at worst, remain stable.
Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data to December 2017, released this week, show break and enter (non-dwelling) was the biggest improver in the local area, dropping 19 per cent over a five-year period 2013-17.
Malicious damage to property fell 14 per cent, shoplifting 12 per cent and motor vehicle theft 10.5 per cent over the same period.
Other downward trends were observed in break and enter a dwelling (down 10 per cent), steal from motor vehicle (down 9 per cent), steal from a person (down 7 per cent) and non-domestic violence assaults (down 4 per cent).
Other categories, including domestic violence assaults, sexual assault, indecent assault, stealing from a dwelling and fraud, were all stable.
Other criminal areas where there were no offences, or so few as to be statistically insignificant, were murder, robbery with a firearm, robbery with a weapon not a firearm, and robbery without a weapon.
The Mountains figures were better than the overall state numbers. Although most categories were trending downwards, the state did record increases in three areas – sexual assault (up 5 per cent), indecent assault (up 3 per cent) and shoplifting (up 3 per cent).